Windows 7 sharing with Windows xp

I could not access win 7 computer from my laptop which has xp on it.. I kept getting enter username and password on my xp machine as it was trying to access win 7. I finally figured out the solution:

On Win 7 machine go to:

Control Panel
Network & Internet
Home group
click on home group then click "change advance sharing settings"
at the bottom click "turn off password protected sharing"

Once this is done everything works in both directions....

It doesn't work for me. My laptop continuous getting login prompt, however, my XP desktop is able to connect to the Win7 machine without problem.

Turn off HomeGroup. Don't use it. It's whacked.